Monday, January 12, 2009

Imagine my delight this morning when I saw the news (above) on the front page of Talking Points Memo. The Obama juggernaut is including the good bishop of New Hampshire in the inaugural festivities.

It is hard to find a more controversial gay clergyperson. While there are lots of gay clergy (yes, that's true as anti-gay persons are always astonished to learn when these folks come out of the closet), there aren't many who manage to exemplify the consistent equanimity and sensitivity toward those who would exclude him that Bishop Robinson shows.

Not surprisingly, his home town paper has the most interesting story on the bishop's invitation:

"It's important for any minority to see themselves represented in some way," Robinson said. "Whether it be a racial minority, an ethnic minority or, in our case, a sexual minority. Just seeing someone like you up front matters."

... Robinson doesn't yet know what he'll say, but he knows he won't use a Bible. "While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans," Robinson said. "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation."

That's inclusion. I've been wondering what our new President was doing to include the non-Christian portion of the nation, not to mention the many atheists. Guess Robinson has been thinking about them too.

But the sheer fact of Bishop Robinson's inclusion wasn't the only reason for my delight. See that picture TPM used to illustrate the news? That's one I took during Bishop Gene's visit to my home parish, St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco. It sits on Flickr waiting to be used -- it's nice to see it again. I suspect the Bishop probably prefers some of the many happier images of him, but he does look very dignified here.

UPDATE, 1/19/09: Because the prayer was not included in the HBO telecast (and the sound was iffy in parts of the crowd) some people did not get to hear Bishop Robinson's invocation. Here's a YouTube [4:14]:

“God, we give you thanks for your child Barack,” the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, said during the event invocation. “Give him wisdom beyond his years. Give him strength to find family time and privacy ... Please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we know we are asking far too much of him."

"Oh God of our many understandings," began Mr. Robinson. He prayed for mindfulness of social justice, patience with the inevitable setbacks of the next president and "freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences."

He began with this:O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future. ...

What is this blog for?

This San Francisco purveyor of graffiti has it right. When times are bleak -- when country and planet sink under the barely restrained sway of greed, raw power, and fear -- it's time to restate what matters.

I write here to preserve and kindle hope for a national and global turn toward multi-racial, economically egalitarian, gender non-constricting, woman affirming, and peace choosing democracy that preserves the habitability of earth for all. There's a big order -- but what else is there to do but struggle for this? Not much.

Topics range from the minuscule to the transcendent to the global, from dire to delightful. I am not an optimist, but I refuse to allow myself to wallow within the easy bias that everything is going to always be awful. Good also happens; love lives too.

I've been yammering here about activism, politics, history, racism and other occasional horrors and pleasures since 2005. I intend to continue as long as the opportunity exists. In this time, that means activism and chronicling resistance. Perhaps it always has, one way and another.

About Me

I'm a progressive political activist who runs trails and climbs mountains whenever any are available. I've had the privilege to work for justice in Central America (Nicaragua and El Salvador), in South Africa, in the fields of California with the United Farmworkers Union, and in the cities and schools of my own country. I'm a Christian of the Episcopalian flavor; we think and argue a lot. For work, I've done a bit of it all: run an old fashioned switch-board; remodeled buildings and poured concrete; edited and published periodicals, reports and books; and organized for electoral campaigns. Will work for justice.